In a major judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that once an institution attains deemed university status, admissions thereto would be made under the control of the University Grants Commission with no role for the concerned State government.

A bench comprising Justice S Rajendra Babu and Justice G P Mathur gave this ruling on an appeal filed by Bharati Vidyapeeth at Pune, which was granted deemed university status in April 1996.

The appeal was directed against a high court order upholding Maharashtra government's stand that it had the authority to regulate admissions to the colleges run by the Vidyapeeth.

Rejecting the State government's stand, the apex court said, "For the proper maintenance of academic excellence, as intended by the UGC Act, admissions to deemed university has to be made under the control of UGC.

"This further goes to show that admission procedure to a deemed to be university is fully occupied by Entry 66 of List I and the State cannot exercise any powers over admission procedure."

The bench said the UGC has prescribed the norms of admission, including fees that could be collected from students, with a specific bar on collection of capitation fee.
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